Semiconductor chips are commonly provided as individual, prepackaged units. A standard chip may have a flat, rectangular body with a large front face having contacts connected to the internal circuitry of the chip. Each chip is typically contained in a package having external terminals connected to the contacts of the chip. In turn, the terminals, i.e., the external connection points of the package, are configured to electrically connect to a circuit panel, such as a printed circuit board. In many conventional designs, the chip package occupies an area of the circuit panel larger than the area of the chip itself.
The demand for more compact physical arrangements of chips has become even more intense with the rapid progress of portable electronic devices. For example, as densities grow in solid state drive (SSD) devices, more memory packages are needed. However, with printed circuit board (PCB) size constraints, there's a limit on how many memory packages may be placed on the PCB.